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On a typical Saturday, surfers precariously scale a seawall at Kewalo Basin and propel themselves into the ocean, sunbathers squeeze onto a narrow ribbon of sand along Kahala Beach that only exists at low tide, and tourists pack a shrinking plot of sand fronting the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Waikiki held in place only by an artificial groin.

Oahu has lost one-fourth of its beaches and of those remaining, about 70 percent are eroding. If state and county officials don’t start working to conserve what’s left of the sandy shoreline, most of the island’s beaches could disappear by the end of the century, say scientists.

“I think by mid-century we are looking at a future where we are down to just a handful of healthy beaches and by the end of the century those will be disappearing, or gone already,” said Chip Fletcher, a coastal geologist and associate dean at the University of Hawaii’s School of Ocean and Earth Science Technology, who is one of the state’s leading experts on beach erosion.

Slide the red button at the the bottom left of the photo to watch the disappearance of Lanikai Beach between 1967 and the present. The 1967 photo is from the city’s archives; Civil Beat used a drone to photograph the same exact location 48 years later.

Beachfront property owners erected illegal seawalls in Lanikai in the 1980s. The city later granted them after-the-fact permits. The walls have devastated this portion of Lanikai Beach, which has topped lists of the world’s best beaches.

The situation has become so dire that Fletcher and other scientists say that policy makers need to start thinking about how to coordinate an organized retreat from the shoreline and begin making hard decisions about which beaches are most worth trying to save.

“Honestly, it doesn’t look promising if we continue business as usual,” said Dolan Eversole, a scientist with the University of Hawaii’s Sea Grant program. “Thus, we need to be realistic about what we can protect in the future. In 20 to 30 years, I think we are going to be entering triage mode and identifying the highest priority legacy beaches and doing everything we can to protect them.”

The famous surfing beaches of the North Shore and Waimanalo and Kailua beaches on the windward side, known for their powdery white sand and brilliant turquoise water, could top the list, said Eversole.

Government officials also need to adopt aggressive setbacks from the beach that take into account accelerated erosion rates spurred by global warming and sea level rise, and take a harder line against seawalls and other structures that harden the shoreline and erode the public beach, beach advocates say.

Erosion Expected to Accelerate

Decades of overdevelopment along the coast and the proliferation of hundreds of seawalls that protect private property, but cause the beach to disappear, have led to the loss of Oahu’s beaches, which are critical to the economy and marine ecosystem, scientists say.

Sand needs room to shift up and down the shoreline. But because homes and infrastructure such as roads have been built too close to the coast, beaches have been pinched and eroded. And as the rise in sea level has naturally occurred over the past century, beaches haven’t had room to move inland.

The situation is expected to worsen with man-made global warming, which is causing an accelerated rise in sea level. By mid-century, the erosion rate on Oahu is expected to double and the shoreline could retreat inland by as much as 40 feet by mid-century, according to a study released last week by scientists at the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology and the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources. By the end of the century, the shoreline could retreat by 100 feet.

By comparison, the county only requires homes to be set back 40 feet from the shoreline — 60 feet for new construction.

“This problem is going to grow in magnitude and spacial diversity,” said Fletcher. “Beaches that have been pretty stable are going to begin to erode. Beaches already eroding are going to experience accelerated erosion. Beaches that have sand deficits because we have landscaped away the dune are going to be falling over the tipping point and experiencing dramatic erosion. It’s just going to get worse. I don’t see any upside or bright side to the future of our beaches.”

As Oahu beaches increasingly disappear there will be fewer stretches of sand for monk seals and sea turtles to haul up and rest, scientists say. As waves slam against seawalls, churning up the water like a washing machine, the nearshore water will grow increasingly murky. The reflection of the waves off walls also scours the ocean floor, degrading coral reefs.

Beachgoers will have fewer patches of sand to flop and surfers will increasingly be launching themselves from seawalls or steps that descend not onto the beach, but straight into the water.

Legacy of Seawalls

Hawaii residents and government officials have known for about a century that seawalls and other structures that harden the shoreline spell disaster for beaches.

The dramatic erosion of Waikiki Beach due to seawalls and dredging made headlines in the local papers in the early decades of the 20th century.

In October 1928, an article in the Honolulu Advertiser reported on a $50,000 government plan to build groins along Waikiki to try to retain the sand.

“It was once a long deep stretch of shining white sand, the kamaainas say and the records of history will tell,” the article says.

But “the seawall spelled destruction to the beach sand,” the article continues. “While admitting the delight of the water temperature, the moonlights, the hula dances and the music boys, (tourists) complained that the beach itself — well, just where was it?”

However, the loss of natural sand from Hawaii’s most famous beach, which is now almost completely man made with imported sand and artificial groins designed to keep sand in place, didn’t halt the erection of seawalls along other parts of the coastline over the coming decades.

In the early 1970s, about 7 percent of Oahu’s 112-mile coastline was armored with seawalls and other structures, according to 2010 research published by UH researchers, Jack Kittinger and Adam Ayers, in the journal, Coastal Management. This number has grown to about 40 percent, even though the state and county began enacting strict permitting systems to limit seawalls in the 1970s.

And while some coastal states have outlawed seawalls, Honolulu continues to permit them.

Since 2010, the city has approved 19 seawalls and other structures within shoreline setback areas, according to data provided to Civil Beat by the city’s Department of Planning and Permitting. These are zones where by law no permanent structure is supposed to be built, but property owners successfully sought exemptions from the law.

Most recently, the city approved a new rock wall for Lee Kun-hee, the billionaire chair of Samsung Group who recently bought a Kahala home formerly owned by Japanese real estate tycoon Genshiro Kawamoto.

The city denied three seawalls over the past five years and also issued 65 notices of violation to property owners related to illegal seawalls and other hardening structures, according to DPP data.

Officials from Honolulu’s planning and permitting department didn’t respond to interview requests for this story or specific questions about whether the department had taken any recent steps to combat the problem of erosion and seawalls and whether they had formulated a long-term plan to address the issue.

Holes in the Law

On the surface, Hawaii has strong laws in place to protect its public beaches, which are part of the public trust.

In 1964, the state created a conservation district which includes the state’s beaches and enacted rules to protect them from development. In the 1970s, Hawaii was also one of the first states to implement the Coastal Zone Management Act, a federal law aimed at managing coastal development so that it didn’t harm the nearshore environment.

Hawaii’s CZM rules emphasize the protection of the sandy shoreline.

“The Legislature finds and declares that it is the state policy to preserve, protect, and where possible, to restore the natural resources of the coastal zone of Hawaii,” according to the state’s rules.

A City and County of Honolulu ordinance also stresses the protection of public beaches over private property rights, stating, “It is the primary policy of the city to protect the natural shoreline.”

But in practice, Hawaii’s legacy of protecting its beaches has been poor, as evidenced by the dramatic and ongoing beach loss, say critics.

“The results are pretty horrific,” said Kittinger.

In their research, Kittinger and Ayers compared Hawaii’s shoreline policy to that of North Carolina.

They concluded that North Carolina’s overall policy was more effective, primarily because the state had outlawed what’s commonly referred to as the armoring of shorelines, building structures such as seawalls and revetments, or dropping boulders on the beach that protect private property.

“The result of that is if you or I were a millionaire and wanted to build a house on the beach, because we are not afforded the legal protection of armoring, we now have to assume the risk of losing our house,” said Kittinger. “And to me, that is very smart public policy.”

Hawaii has taken a different tack, he said: “The public loses the beach at the expense of the private landowner keeping their home.”

Hawaii and Honolulu laws allow beachfront property owners to claim a hardship exemption in order to get permission to armor their property. Because Oahu’s setback policies are inadequate and homes are built too close to the coast, this policy virtually ensures that every property will eventually have a seawall, said Fletcher.

A Path Forward

Oahu isn’t the only island suffering from beach erosion. Maui and Kauai have also suffered significant beach loss. But both counties in recent years have also adopted progressive setback policies for coastal development that take into account anticipated erosion rates.

Maui’s setback for constructing homes and infrastructure along the coast is 25 feet plus 50 times the erosion rate. Kauai’s setback is 40 feet plus 75 times the erosion rate. Kauai now also prohibits seawalls.

However, Oahu hasn’t followed suit. The county’s setback policy of 40 feet and 60 feet for new construction doesn’t take into account anticipated erosion rates.

With new research showing that the rate of erosion is expected to more than double in the coming decades, Fletcher said that the need to revise setbacks is all the more pressing.

DPP officials did not respond to a question about whether or not they planned to review their setback policy.

But Oahu has an even bigger problem: intense development has already taken place on much of the shoreline, ensuring continued fights between property owners seeking to protect their homes and the public and government officials seeking to protect the public beaches.

“The problem with our beaches is that the cat is already out of the bag because we have already developed many of our beaches,” said Fletcher. “We need to develop some sort of escape strategy for existing homeowners. There are no easy or inexpensive ways to retreat from the shoreline. It’s a huge thorny issue.”

One option could be to expand Oahu beach parks by acquiring adjacent private properties, said Fletcher. In return for donating property to the state, owners could receive a reduced tax or reverse mortgage.

But encouraging homeowners to donate highly lucrative beachfront property to the state could be difficult. Eversole said that the most realistic time to implement some sort of managed retreat from the shoreline may be after a hurricane or tsunami. Homeowners could be prohibited from rebuilding destroyed homes or given land makua of the shoreline to relocate to.

Recently, the Honolulu City Council and Legislature are exploring setting up funds for beach restoration.

The council is currently debating two bills that would levy assessments on about 6,500 Waikiki businesses in an effort to raise $600,000 annually to fund long-term beach management and replenishment at Waikiki.

A bill that would set up a dedicated fund for beach restoration and conservation recently passed out of the Senate Ways and Means Committee. The bill doesn’t have an appropriation yet, but up to $5 million is expected to be diverted annually from the transit accommodation tax.

The Legislature also passed a law last year creating a Climate Adaptation Initiative. The consortium of state departments, counties and federal representatives are tasked with reviewing the science on beach erosion and coming up with recommended solutions to manage the shoreline.

Overall, Fletcher said that Hawaii needs to develop an overarching strategy for dealing with the realities of beach erosion, instead of the current fragmented and reactionary policies that have guided much of public policy for decades.

“We have been twiddling our thumbs and snapping our heels on this issue for decades now,” said Fletcher. “Beaches continue to fail. Erosion continues to eat away at our shoreline. And we have made no significant progress in terms of beach conservation.”

]]>Why Did the City Approve a New Seawall for a Kahala Property After the State Ordered It Removed?https://www.civilbeat.org/2015/03/why-did-the-city-approve-a-new-seawall-for-a-kahala-property-after-the-state-ordered-it-removed/
Tue, 31 Mar 2015 10:10:22 +0000http://www.civilbeat.org/?p=1076972A wealthy South Korean businessman who bought two Kahala beachfront properties was required to tear out an illegal seawall that was encroaching on the public beach. But the city has since given Lee Kun-hee, the billionaire chairman of South Korea’s Samsung Group, permission to erect a new wall just mauka of the state’s certified shoreline, which scientists say will […]

]]>A wealthy South Korean businessman who bought two Kahala beachfront properties was required to tear out an illegal seawall that was encroaching on the public beach. But the city has since given Lee Kun-hee, the billionaire chairman of South Korea’s Samsung Group, permission to erect a new wall just mauka of the state’s certified shoreline, which scientists say will exacerbate beach erosion.

Critics say the city approval also signals a destructive trend when it comes to allowing seawalls and other structures that harden the shoreline, effectively expanding a loophole in the law that allows property owners to claim hardship when arguing for a protective wall.

Usually, property owners invoke the hardship clause when the ocean is threatening their homes. In this case, the plot is currently vacant.

“It’s such a new precedent for environmental damage,” said Chip Fletcher, a coastal geologist and associate dean at the University of Hawaii’s School of Ocean and Earth Science Technology, who has become one of the state’s leading experts on beach erosion.

He called the decision, unanimously approved by the Honolulu City Council, “crazy.”

Samsung Chair Lee Kun-hee’s new Kahala property where he plans to build a $20 million luxury compound.

Sophie Cocke/Civil Beat

Officials at the Department of Planning and Permitting, which recommended to the City Council that the seawall be approved, didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story.

Councilman Trevor Ozawa, who represents the area, didn’t return a call for comment.

Luxury Kahala Compound

Lee is planning to spend up to $20 million to build a 16,000-square-foot luxury home, staff and guest quarters, pool and garage on two adjacent vacant lots at 4465 and 4469 Kahala Ave. that were formerly owned by Japanese billionaire, Genshiro Kawamoto, according to the project’s environmental assessment filed with the state Office of Environmental Quality Control.

But to get county permits to start construction, he needed to have the state certify the shoreline, which would then determine the county setback area, according to permitting documents. For new construction, the county requires that homes and permanent structures be set back 60 feet from the shoreline in order to protect the beach.

In order to figure out where the shoreline ends and Lee’s property begins, the seawall that was blocking the waves needed to be torn down, according to Sam Lemmo, who heads the state Department of Land and Natural Resources Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands.

Several months passed after the wall was taken out. The sand came back and the waves pushed up on the shoreline. DLNR determined that the high wash of the waves was about 20 feet mauka of where the old seawall was and certified the shoreline.

It was a “big encroachment,” Lemmo said about the old seawall. Records don’t indicate when the wall was built, but the environmental assessment indicates it was sometime prior to the late 1980s.

That gave Lee a certified shoreline for the property and he could proceed with construction plans.

He then applied for a shoreline setback variance from the city, asking for permission to build a rock wall within the setback area and just mauka of the state’s certified shoreline.

The Honolulu City Council, on the recommendation of the Department of Planning and Permitting, granted it. The city planning and permitting department argued that Lee would otherwise suffer an economic hardship.

But the new wall — like all the other walls that line Kahala Beach — will likely erode the beach within a few years, said UH’s Fletcher.

Claiming Hardship

Honolulu ordinance relating to the county setback states that “it is a primary policy of the city to protect and preserve the natural shoreline, especially sandy beaches,” and it’s a “secondary policy of the city to reduce hazards to property from coastal floods.”

This 1967 aerial photo of Kahala shows a strip of white sand beach that has now largely eroded.

City and County of Honolulu

But beach advocates say in practice private property rights are elevated above the public’s right to the beach by allowing property owners to argue that they will suffer a hardship if they aren’t granted permission to erect structures like walls, sandbags and boulders to protect their properties.

“This does nothing more than guarantee that every beach will get a seawall on it,” said Fletcher. “Look at the beach data that is available. If the beach is chronically eroding, you have to realize that the future holds nothing but hardship after hardship.”

Scientists estimate that Oahu has already lost one fourth of its beaches, primarily because of seawalls. And a new study conducted by UH’s School of Ocean and Earth Science Technology and DLNR indicates that the erosion rate is expected to more than double in coming decades due to global warming and sea level rise.

Jeffrey Overton, a planner for Group 70 International which was hired by Lee to do the property’s environmental assessment, took exception with the notion that the new rock wall signaled a prioritization of the private property owner’s plans over the public’s right to the beach.

After the illegal seawall was torn down, “we created an additional 12 to 20 feet of beach as a result of this,” said Overton. “It’s not a taking (of public beach) it’s a giving. Do you understand how much it costs for Kahala property? It’s a huge give.”

Overton stressed that the the owner planned to put up a revetment, a sloping rock structure that is less damaging to the beach than seawalls.

But Fletcher said revetments take up more space than vertical seawalls, in addition to eroding the beach.

Worth the Fight?

City archival photographs of Kahala show that there was once a white, sandy beach that stretched from the Ewa end of Kahala Avenue to the Waialae Country Club. Long-time residents say that the neighborhood was home to modest beach houses with open lots, and acreage that was leased to farmers to grow vegetables and raise pigs.

But the kamaaina feel of Kahala has given way to multi-million dollar vacation homes hidden by large walls that surround the property and block any view of the ocean from Kahala Avenue. There is very little beach left and much of it is only accessible during low tide.

As the tide rises, people sit in the public beach walkways because the beach disappears.

Beachgoers take advantage of what is left of Kahala Beach at low tide. The beach disappears at high tide.

Sophie Cocke/Civil Beat

Notably, Kawamoto, the Japanese businessman who once owned more than two dozen properties along Kahala Avenue, tore down many of the homes and walls — and controversially, allowed many of the lots to degrade.

Some area residents have argued that the sale opened up a window of opportunity to reclaim the public beach.

John and Lucinda Pyles, who have lived in the neighborhood for four decades, submitted comments last year on the environmental assessment, arguing that the 4400 block of Kahala Avenue still had beach worth preserving and that it was frequented by local residents. Furthermore, there are seven vacant lots on that block which potentially provides an opportunity to take down the shoreline structures and restore the beach, they said.

“With fifty percent of the shoreline in this area unimproved, it would seem that there might be a unique window of opportunity to disarm the beach in this area without creating a threat to existing improvements,” the Pyles wrote in testimony.

Does “the city and state have a responsibility to preserve and, in this case, restore the public trust resource that is the natural shoreline if the opportunity arises to do so?” they continued.

But in a follow-up interview, Lucinda Pyles said that she has since come to accept the new seawall. She stressed the need to protect private property interests.

Residents fish from a local beach access path in Kahala because the narrow beach has disappeared with the high tide.

Sophie Cocke/Civil Beat

“I would love to see every seawall on Kahala Beach torn down, but I think it would threaten people’s homes,” she said. “It would be too dramatic.”

Asked if Kahala was a lost cause, UH’s Fletcher said no.

“There is always hope,” he said, noting that Kahala is a wealthy community and beachfront owners could band together to mine sand from offshore and do a beach replenishment project.

“But if they are going to manage the Kahala shoreline property by property there is no hope. It has to be done as a holistic, environmental solution and conservation has to be the goal,” said Fletcher.

“This is where the City and County should step up and provide leadership and they are not.”

]]>Feds Give OK to NextEra Purchase of Hawaiian Electrichttps://www.civilbeat.org/2015/03/feds-give-ok-to-nextera-purchase-of-hawaiian-electric/
Mon, 30 Mar 2015 21:24:05 +0000http://www.civilbeat.org/?p=1077173The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved the planned acquisition of Hawaiian Electric Industries by Florida based-NextEra Energy, according to a joint press release issued by the two companies on Monday. NextEra announced in December that it was planning to purchase Hawaii’s major electric utility as part of a $4.3 billion deal. The purchase includes […]

]]>The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved the planned acquisition of Hawaiian Electric Industries by Florida based-NextEra Energy, according to a joint press release issued by the two companies on Monday.

NextEra announced in December that it was planning to purchase Hawaii’s major electric utility as part of a $4.3 billion deal.

The purchase includes Hawaiian Electric Co. on Oahu, Hawaii Electric Light Co. on the Big Island and Maui Electric Co., which serves Maui, Lanai and Molokai.

As part of the deal, American Savings Bank, a subsidiary of Hawaiian Electric Industries, will be spun off into an independent company.

The purchase still has to be approved by Hawaii’s Public Utilities Commission and HEI shareholders. The PUC has indicated that it may not rule on the deal until the middle of next year. Meanwhile, more than two dozen entities, including solar trade groups, county and state agencies and other energy companies have intervened in the quasi-judicial proceedings taking place before the PUC.

“Approval by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission represents a significant step toward the completion of our merger,” Jim Robo, chairman and chief executive officer of NextEra Energy, said in a statement. “Through our partnership, we will apply our combined expertise and resources to deliver significant savings and value to Hawaiian Electric customers. We will continue to work closely with our partners at Hawaiian Electric in pursuing the remaining necessary approvals to complete the merger and begin to deliver the more affordable clean energy future we all want for Hawaii.”

“Hawaiian Electric is gaining a partner that is the world’s largest generator of renewable energy from the wind and sun, with a commitment to supporting rooftop solar in Hawaii and a proven track record of lowering electric bills,” she said in a statement. “This approval provides further momentum toward ultimately delivering that substantial value to our customers and communities.”

]]>House Committee Kills Homeless Bill of Rightshttps://www.civilbeat.org/2015/03/house-committee-kills-homeless-bill-of-rights/
Wed, 18 Mar 2015 02:04:39 +0000http://www.civilbeat.org/?p=1075292The House Committee on Human Services deferred a bill on Tuesday that would create a “Houseless Bill of Rights,” designed to ensure homeless would be protected from discrimination and afforded certain rights, such as access to restrooms, public spaces, the ability to vote and to sleep in a legally parked car. The measure had support from homeless […]

]]>The House Committee on Human Services deferred a bill on Tuesday that would create a “Houseless Bill of Rights,” designed to ensure homeless would be protected from discrimination and afforded certain rights, such as access to restrooms, public spaces, the ability to vote and to sleep in a legally parked car.

The measure had support from homeless advocates, while the attorney general’s office expressed legal concerns about some aspects of the bill. For instance, state law prohibits people from sleeping or living in their cars — contradicting the bill of rights and requiring the current law to be rescinded.

Tents line the sidewalks at Ohe Street near Waterfront Park in Kakaako.

In recent months, Honolulu has passed controversial laws that ban sitting and lying on certain sidewalks and pedestrian malls throughout Oahu and ramped up the enforcement of nuisance laws in an attempt prod homeless out of tourist and business districts and into shelters.

Kathryn Xian, a homeless advocate and executive director of the Pacific Alliance to Stop Slavery, expressed disappointment after the House committee vote.

“The delay of these rights for our most vulnerable in our community (the houseless) leave the city enabled to introduce and pass even more laws criminalizing the houseless,” she said in email to lawmakers and the media.

Other measures aimed at protecting the homeless are set to be heard in the Legislature on Thursday.

]]>Man Dies In Police Custody After Being Tased, Pepper Sprayedhttps://www.civilbeat.org/2015/03/man-dies-in-police-custody-after-being-tased-pepper-sprayed/
Wed, 18 Mar 2015 01:22:10 +0000http://www.civilbeat.org/?p=1075308A man died on Monday night after being tased, pepper sprayed and restrained by Honolulu police officers, according to a Honolulu Police Department press release. The man, whose name was not released, was wearing dark-colored clothing, running in the middle of the roadway and acting erratically in an area of King Street fronting Iolani Palace, […]

]]>A man died on Monday night after being tased, pepper sprayed and restrained by Honolulu police officers, according to a Honolulu Police Department press release.

The man, whose name was not released, was wearing dark-colored clothing, running in the middle of the roadway and acting erratically in an area of King Street fronting Iolani Palace, according to police.

“The male refused to leave the roadway, continuously running away and evading the officers as they approached him. OC pepper spray was used but was ineffective as the male continued to remain on the roadway,” according to the release. “An electric gun was deployed twice but was also ineffective. The male tripped and fell while trying to run away, at which time officers were able to gain control of the combative male and placed him under arrest. The male was escorted to the sidewalk when he suddenly became unresponsive.”

The man was later taken to Queens Medical Center in an ambulance where police say he died.

It’s not clear what caused the man’s death. Rade Vanic, a captain with the Honolulu Police Department, said no further details about the circumstances surrounding the death are being released at this time.

]]>State Study: Possible Sand Island Homeless Camp Site is Safehttps://www.civilbeat.org/2015/03/state-study-possible-sand-island-homeless-camp-site-is-safe/
Fri, 13 Mar 2015 10:06:21 +0000http://www.civilbeat.org/?p=1074644Soil tests on an empty plot of land on Sand Island where Mayor Kirk Caldwell has proposed relocating up to 100 homeless people indicate that the area is safe for human habitation, according to Fenix Grange, a supervisor in the Hawaii Department of Health’s Hazard Evaluation and Emergency Response Office. The department tested the soil for lead, […]

]]>Soil tests on an empty plot of land on Sand Island where Mayor Kirk Caldwell has proposed relocating up to 100 homeless people indicate that the area is safe for human habitation, according to Fenix Grange, a supervisor in the Hawaii Department of Health’s Hazard Evaluation and Emergency Response Office.

The new samples showed trace levels of a number of contaminants, including lead and arsenic, but they were well below the most conservative threshold that would spark health concerns, said Grange.

“At this point, given the data that we have now, it certainly looks like the surface soils are clean and safe for residential use,” she said.

The Sand Island site where the City of Honolulu has proposed a Housing First Transition Center.

PF Bentley/Civil Beat

The results may reinvigorate Caldwell’s plan for a tent facility that would include restrooms, shuttle service to town, storage areas and security. The mayor announced plans for the homeless facility in August and had planned to have it operational by the end of last year.

The administration began having second thoughts about the site after health officials raised concerns about potential contamination. The city was facing as much as $25,000 in costs to test the soil. This was later covered by federal funds allocated to the Health Department by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Health officials had also suggested that the site might need to be covered with asphalt or crushed coral to contain any contamination, which could have cost the city up to $40,000.

The city would not need to cover the soil, said Grange.

Jesse Broder Van Dyke, a spokesman for the mayor, did not respond to questions about how the Caldwell administration plans to proceed with plans for the homeless site in light of the results of the new soil testing.

‘We Just Wanted to Be Sure’

A study conducted more than a decade ago when state officials were exploring a golf course in the area found not only elevated levels of lead, but potentially dangerous levels of contaminants, including arsenic and dieldrins, which can cause cancer, as well as pesticides and PCBs.

That study was conducted over a much larger area.

“Because of the history of the site and other detections farther away, we just wanted to be sure,” said Grange. “We also wanted to use more modern sampling.”

This latest sampling concentrated on about 21,000 square feet of land where the homeless could be be sleeping and nearby areas where children could be playing.

Much of Sand Island is heavily industrialized, hosting the city’s recycling operations and dozens of businesses. The proposed homeless camp sits about a quarter-mile from the island’s wastewater treatment plant.

In past decades, the small island just off the south shore of Oahu hosted solid waste and ash dumps. During World War II it was used as an internment camp for Japanese.

City officials have said that they aimed to keep the site open for no more than two years as they worked to place homeless people in more permanent housing. There are roughly 1,500 homeless people currently living on the streets, according to city estimates.

UPDATE: After this story was published, the mayor’s office indicated in a statement to Civil Beat that city officials will continue to consider Sand Island as a potential homeless site based on the soil sample results.

“However, while waiting for the soils testing results, the City was able to start placing individuals and family units into the Housing First program, and we are now up to housing 37 households, including 43 individuals,” Deputy Managing Director Georgette Deemer said in the statement. “As such, the City will reevaluate the project, talk with stakeholders and elected officials of the surrounding districts, and determine whether it still makes sense to go to Sand Island, and if so, what is the best use of the site.”

]]>Will Hawaii Finally Become Last State to Ban New Cesspools?https://www.civilbeat.org/2015/03/will-hawaii-finally-become-last-state-to-ban-new-cesspools/
Wed, 11 Mar 2015 10:10:58 +0000http://www.civilbeat.org/?p=1074154Concerned that raw sewage is contaminating coastal waters and threatening drinking water supplies, lawmakers have advanced two bills that would ban new cesspools and provide tax credits to help homeowners who already have cesspools convert to other systems. Hawaii has long been the only state that allows new cesspools, holes in the ground that discharge […]

]]>Concerned that raw sewage is contaminating coastal waters and threatening drinking water supplies, lawmakers have advanced two bills that would ban new cesspools and provide tax credits to help homeowners who already have cesspools convert to other systems.

Hawaii has long been the only state that allows new cesspools, holes in the ground that discharge raw, untreated waste.

House Bill 1141, which would ban new cesspools as well as new structures tied to existing cesspools beginning in 2017, and House Bill 1140, which affords homeowners a yet-to-be-defined refundable income tax credit, have both passed the House and crossed over to the Senate for deliberation. The credits would help homeowners convert to septic tanks or an aerobic treatment unit, or connect to a county sewage system.

Signs warn the public to keep out of the water at Kahaluu Lagoon leading into Kaneohe Bay last November after high levels of bacteria associated with sewage were detected. Health officials suspect that about 700 cesspools in the area were the likely cause.

Cory Lum/Civil Beat

The legislation follows a failed effort by Hawaii Department of Health officials to get Gov. Neil Abercrombie to sign new administrative rules before he left office at the beginning of last December that would have made similar changes.

In addition to banning new cesspools, the Health Department rules would also require property owners to convert cesspools to septic tanks within a year of a home being sold.

The rules could still be signed by Gov. David Ige. Cindy McMillan, a spokesman for the governor, said that Ige is currently reviewing them.

“There are a number of health and environmental concerns that are associated with the 90,000 cesspools around the state. And it’s time that we start phasing them out.” — State Sen. Mike Gabbard

Past efforts to ban cesspools have been opposed by homeowners balking at the cost, which can range from $10,000 to $30,000, as well as real estate interests worried about the impact on home sales.

This year’s bill affording homeowners a tax break for converting their cesspools appears to have quelled opposition from groups like the Hawaii Association of Realtors, which expressed concerns about proposed cesspool bans in the past.

Lawmakers are still considering how to reduce the tax credit’s cost to the state. A similar bill proposed by Sen. Mike Gabbard was killed in the Senate Ways and Means Committee last month because of its projected cost of $45 million.

Gabbard said that there are ways to bring down the costs of the credits, however, and intends to hear both of the House bills, which were proposed by Rep. Nicole Lowen, in the Senate Energy and Environment Committee, which he chairs.

The ‘Cesspool Capital’

There are about 90,000 cesspools throughout Hawaii. The tax credit could be scaled back to only apply to about 20,000 cesspools that are near groundwater or coastal water sources, said Gabbard.

Gabbard and other lawmakers said they are also considering tying the tax credit to homeowner income levels, which would further reduce its cost.

“There are people that live in much poorer rural areas that don’t have multi-million-dollar homes, and $15,000 to $30,000 (for a septic system) is close to what they make in a year,” Keith-Agaran said.

“We need to think about the long-term, potential costs of not doing anything when it comes to public health.” — Stuart Coleman, Surfrider Foundation

Hawaii has the ignominious distinction among environmentalists as being the “cesspool capital” of the country. The state has more cesspools than any other state, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Hawaii is also the only state that still permits new cesspools. Rhode Island was the last state other than Hawaii to ban them, and that was 50 years ago, according to the Surfrider Foundation.

Stuart Coleman, who heads Surfrider’s Hawaii chapter, said that the cost of converting all of the state’s cesspools may have hampered past efforts to ban them, but noted that the state Health Department has offered low-cost loans to homeowners to aid in the process.

“We need to think about the long-term, potential costs of not doing anything when it comes to public health,” he said.

Raw sewage can cause Hepatitis A, conjunctivitis, salmonella, cholera and leptospirosis, a painful gastrointestinal illness. The waste is also associated with elevated levels of phosphorous and nitrogen, which harm water quality, stimulate algae growth and harm coral reefs.

“There are a number of health and environmental concerns that are associated with the 90,000 cesspools around the state,” said Gabbard. “And it’s time that we start phasing them out.”

High Bacteria at Kahaluu Lagoon

Hawaii’s cesspool problem attracted heightened concern from health officials last year when water sampling at Kahaluu Lagoon on Oahu’s windward side revealed alarmingly high levels of bacteria associated with sewage. Some of the bacteria samples were hundreds of times the state’s safe limit and health officials suspect that the approximately 700 cesspools in the area were likely the cause, though a department investigation is ongoing.

The levels at Kahaluu have approached those found in the Ala Wai Canal in 2006, when city officials notoriously dumped 48 million gallons of raw sewage in the waterway — a desperate measure to stop the raw waste from spewing out of a broken pipe and onto the streets of Waikiki.

Over the years, health officials have also raised concerns about the health and environmental impacts of cesspools in Waimanalo Beach Lots on Oahu, in the area around Hanalei Bay on Kauai and Kapoho on the Big Island.

Cesspools also pose a risk to underground drinking water supplies. Lowen said that this risk is particularly high in Puna on the Big Island, where many homeowners have drinking water wells.

Cindy McMillan, a spokeswoman for Ige, said that the administration would take a look at the House bills “to determine how best to help with input” when they cross over to the Senate.

]]>Saving Waikiki Beach — At Least for Nowhttps://www.civilbeat.org/2015/03/saving-waikiki-beach-at-least-for-now/
Mon, 09 Mar 2015 10:10:19 +0000http://www.civilbeat.org/?p=1073953Tourists in bikinis and board shorts packed onto the narrow strip of sand fronting the iconic Royal Hawaiian and Moana Surfrider hotels on a recent weekday. Dozens of novice surfers lurched to catch waist-high waves in the turquoise water. It’s a scene that has played out for decades at the world-famous beach that lures several […]

]]>Tourists in bikinis and board shorts packed onto the narrow strip of sand fronting the iconic Royal Hawaiian and Moana Surfrider hotels on a recent weekday. Dozens of novice surfers lurched to catch waist-high waves in the turquoise water.

It’s a scene that has played out for decades at the world-famous beach that lures several million people a year to Waikiki, generating about 42 percent of the state’s visitor industry revenue.

But the beach stretching to the Kuhio Beach Basin, where a bronze statute of famous surfer Duke Kahanamoku welcomes visitors with outstretched arms, is in danger of disappearing.

A walkway overlooking a beach wall near the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel.

Cory Lum/Civil Beat

A crumbling, century-old stone wall that juts out from the Royal Hawaiian is in imminent danger of collapsing, say scientists. The groin is the sole reason sand remains along this main stretch of Waikiki Beach.

Without it, the beach in front of the Royal Hawaiian would likely disappear in a matter of days, said Dolan Eversole, a scientist with the University of Hawaii’s Sea Grant program. It would take several months to a year for the rest of the stretch of sand to erode.

This portion of the beach fronting the Royal Hawaiian has already disappeared due to a persistent southwesterly swell.

Courtesy Waikiki Improvement Association

Most visitors may not know it, but Waikiki Beach is almost entirely man-made. It has had erosion problems since the late-1800s when developers began erecting hotels and homes too close to the natural shoreline and building seawalls and other structures that blocked the natural ebb and flow of sand along the beach.

By 1950, more than 80 structures, including seawalls, groins, piers and storm drains, were counted along the Waikiki shoreline, according to a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report.

Efforts to combat the resulting erosion have been haphazard, however, and with sea level rise now claiming about a foot of the beach a year, the threat of losing Waikiki Beach has become more dire.

“Waikiki is arguably as important as a slice of the H-1 and if a part of the H-1 needed maintenance there would be no question that we would go and maintain it, repave it, fill potholes,” said Chip Fletcher, a coastal geologist and associate dean at the University of Hawaii’s School of Ocean and Earth Science Technology. “Well, that is what we are doing to Waikiki Beach — it’s maintenance. If it costs millions of dollars, there is abundant economic justification for that.”

The groin jutting out from the Royal Hawaiian isn’t the only structure in danger of collapsing. Many of the old shoreline structures in Waikiki weren’t engineered to modern standards and are at risk of failing, according to scientists. And some of the beaches along Waikiki have been gone for years, including parts of Kaimana and Gray’s Beach and an area on the Ewa side of the Natatorium. Just a few years ago, water was flooding thebar at the Moana Hotel because there was no beach left, noted Eversole.

Charging Waikiki Businesses

The situation has prompted the Honolulu City Council to hear two bills that would levy assessments on about 6,500 Waikiki businesses that stretch from the Ala Wai Harbor to Kaimana Beach and back to the Ala Wai Canal in an effort to raise $600,000 annually to fund long-term beach management and replenishment plans.

Bill 81 and Bill 82 have passed two out of three votes by the full council and have been referred back to the Zoning and Planning Committee for review. A final vote on the bills has yet to be scheduled.

Businesses would pay about 7 cents annually for every $1,000 of their property value. For a company like Starwood Hotels, this would come out to about $81,000 a year, said Rick Egged, president of the Waikiki Improvement Association, which is backing the bills. On the other end of the spectrum, some small, non-beachfront businesses would pay less than $100 a year.

The measures have received pushback from some local businesses, however. About 700 Waikiki property owners and lessees, representing about 10 percent of the affected properties, have filed objections to the assessments with the city.

Other groups, such as Friends of the Natatorium and Surfrider Foundation, have raised concerns that the bills will give private businesses too much control over beachfront property — Kapiolani Park and the Natatorium, in particular.

For decades, groups have fought over whether or not to tear down the Natatorium, a shuttered, open-ocean swimming pool built as a memorial to World War I soldiers. Options include replacing it with a beach or restoring the structure. Opponents of restoring the Natatorium have worried that it will lead to further commercialization of the area and the loss of Kaimana Beach, one of the few local beaches left on the south side of Oahu, to tourists.

“This would not be the first time that development interests made a covert run at commercializing the Natatorium and its surrounding area,” Rick Bernstein, who heads the Kaimana Beach Coalition, wrote in testimony opposing the measures.

Walking the beach at Waikiki can mean navigating narrow stretches, such as this area near the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel.

Cory Lum/Civil Beat

Egged said that there was no ulterior motive in the bills to commercialize the area around the Natatorium.

“This is not our intention at all … We’re trying to do good things to prevent erosion,” he said. “We have no plans to do anything commercial.”

The bills would create a Waikiki Beach Management District, which would be overseen by an elected board. A coordinator from UH Sea Grant would spearhead efforts to come up with an overall beach management plan for Waikiki.

“If it costs millions of dollars, there is abundant economic justification for that.” — Chip Fletcher, University of Hawaii School of Ocean and Earth Science Technology

Eversole said that one of the first projects could be assisting the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources with replacing the groin extending from the Royal Hawaiian, a project estimated at $1.3 million.

Other priorities could be establishing a regular beach re-nourishment program for the sand around Kuhio and the Royal Hawaiian. The DLNR completed a major beach project there in 2012 in which 27,000 cubic yards of of sand was piped in from offshore and deposited on the beach. The project extended the beach by about 37 feet at a cost of $2.9 million.

Eversole said that this sort of sand pumping may have to be repeated every five to 10 years.

Sand along Kuhio Beach is sliding into the artificial swim basins and may need to be pushed back up onto the beach, he said, while the Natatorium is crumbling into the nearshore water.

“The walls around the pool are on the verge of failure,” said Eversole. “It’s just a matter of time before it fails catastrophically.”

He said the management plan could lay out options for dealing with the resulting public health and safety issues from a collapse.

Decades of Dredging and Seawalls

As beachgoers flopped under the Royal Hawaiian’s red beach umbrellas last week, workers clad in jeans awkwardly struggled in the surf as they tried to push burlap sand bags up against a wall and stairwell that used to descend onto a sandy beach, but now leads into the ocean.

An unusual southwesterly swell in recent months has caused several yards of the beach to erode, say scientists. The sand has been pushed toward Diamond Head and the hope is it will eventually return. But the situation highlights the ongoing problems that Waikiki has had for decades since developers began building too close to the shoreline in the late-1800s.

The resulting erosion prompted property owners to erect seawalls and groins to protect their properties, which only eroded the beach more. Major dredging and sand removal to fill in natural wetlands and for use in construction in the first decades of the 20th century have also contributed to the erosion.

In 1909 workers dredged sand to fill in wetlands that would become Fort DeRussy, and a few years later the military cut a wide channel in the reef to bring in a 69- ton artillery gun. The results to nearby beaches were devastating as sand was swept through the hole in the reef.

Workers struggle to secure sand bags in front of the Royal Hawaiian as small waves thrash the beach.

Cory Lum/Civil Beat

“What had been a glorious beach — which no other beach on earth could touch — was nothing. Property owners lost anywhere from ten to thirty feet of their ocean frontage,” wrote Kinau Wilder in the “Wilders of Waikiki.” “Everyone was forced to put up seawalls to keep from losing their houses as well. Instead of running from the grass right on out to the ocean, we had to go down slippery steps to a miserable little strip of sand which, during certain months, was non-existent.”

To combat the erosion, enormous amounts of sand have been trucked into Waikiki over the years, mainly from other areas on Oahu and Molokai. Very little if any of the sand that now makes up Waikiki is natural, according to reports. Records are spotty, so it’s difficult to discern where all the sand came from, but there are reports of it coming from places like Waimanalo, Kahuku and possibly Waimea Bay, said Eversole.

A recent survey by the Waikiki Improvement Association found that 12 percent of Waikiki tourists said they wouldn’t come back because of the small, overcrowded beaches.

Records compiled by Robert Wiegel, an engineer at the University of California at Berkeley, suggest that the majority of sand was trucked to Waikiki in the 1950s through the 1970s. The reports detail some 380,000 cubic yards of sand being placed on Waikiki beaches, or enough sand to fill 116 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

The sand mining caused its own erosion problems in the areas it was being taken from, and the state outlawed the practice in the mid-1970s.

“You are robbing Peter to pay Paul,” said Fletcher, of the sand mining. “We can’t do that anymore.”

The state has only recently revamped efforts to replenish sand on Waikiki, including the most recent 2012 project. But piping sand from offshore comes with its own challenges. For instance, it’s not clear if there are enough deposits offshore of Waikiki to keep the supply coming.

“Sand is a scarce commodity,” said Fletcher. “It is not actually clear where the sand is going to come from. There’s not that much sand out there.”

Eversole said that there is a sand deposit offshore of the Reef Runway at the Honolulu International Airport that could help supply Waikiki sand.

Buying Time and Facing Flooding

For tourism officials, there is no question about the importance of Waikiki to Hawaii’s economy. Ifall of Waikiki Beach were to erode, the state would lose about $2 billion in visitor expenditures annually, according to a 2008 report from the Waikiki Improvement Association.

The report, which surveyed tourists, found that 58 percent of mainland and western tourists wouldn’t stay in Waikiki if there was no beach, compared to 14 percent of Japanese tourists.

And while tourist numbers have remained strong so far, Waikiki could start seeing less repeat business. A recent survey by the Waikiki Improvement Association found that 12 percent of Waikiki tourists said they wouldn’t come back because of the small, overcrowded beaches.

“One of the major complaints is that there is not enough space on the beach,” said Egged.

But with global warming threatening to raise area sea level by a foot by mid-century, are local officials just staving off what will inevitably be the complete loss of Waikiki Beach?

John Marra, a climate change scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, said it’s a real possibility, not just because the sea level is rising but because severe weather events are increasing in frequency.

Pumping sand from offshore should work for the near future, said Marra, but “there’s probably a certain point where it isn’t going to be enough to stay ahead of the game.”

“Could it happen by 2050? Yeah. Could it happen sooner? Yeah,” he said.

Egged said that while that may be the long-term reality, for now it makes economic sense to battle the problem.

“I can tell you that we are very concerned on an ongoing basis and we want to do everything we can to protect the shoreline and the beaches,” he said. “If that becomes unmanageable at some point, we will just have to address the choices at that time. I don’t see that as happening in the real planning horizon. For the next 10 years, I feel pretty comfortable — beyond that, I’m not sure.”

The rising ocean and loss of beach isn’t the only threat to Waikiki from global warming, however. Waikiki rests only 2 feet below ground level, noted Marra. And as the sea level rises, so does the groundwater table — a situation that is already causing water to occasionally spew out of stormwater drains and flood the roads fronting Waikiki Beach.

Over the last three years, there has been flooding at the Honolulu Zoo, Royal Hawaiian and Hilton Hawaiian Village, as well as streets on the Ewa end of Waikiki where there has been as much as 2 feet of standing water, noted Fletcher.

It’s a problem Miami is already grappling with at a cost of $400 million over the next five years. The city is installing up to 70 pumps that will send the water back out into the ocean. Fletcher said that Waikiki could be facing a similar scenario.

]]>Women In Renewable Energy Ban the Presshttps://www.civilbeat.org/2015/03/women-in-renewable-energy-ban-the-press/
Fri, 06 Mar 2015 20:34:12 +0000http://www.civilbeat.org/?p=1073694Civil Beat was eager Friday morning to report what Gov. David Ige and newly appointed Cabinet members had to say about the direction of Hawaii’s energy policy. Women in Renewable Energy, a local nonprofit, was hosting a forum at The Plaza Club with Ige, Luis Salaveria, the new director of the Department of Business, Economic […]

]]>Civil Beat was eager Friday morning to report what Gov. David Ige and newly appointed Cabinet members had to say about the direction of Hawaii’s energy policy.

Women in Renewable Energy, a local nonprofit, was hosting a forum at The Plaza Club with Ige, Luis Salaveria, the new director of the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism and Ford Fuchigami, the new director of the Department of Transportation.

Officials were there to “share their plans for Hawaii’s clean energy future.” Moderating the event was Asia Yeary of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Screenshot, The Plaza Club

Screenshot, The Plaza Club

It’s a particularly interesting time for the state with the pending sale of Hawaiian Electric Co. to Florida-based NextEra Energy, squabbles over the future of rooftop solar and a slew of utility-scale renewable energy projects poised to dot the Oahu landscape. And the forum seemed like a good opportunity to learn more about the views of some of our top government officials.

However, it was not to be. Yvette Maskrey, a WiRE board member and president of Honeywell International, was in the midst of announcing Ige to a room of attendees feasting on breakfast, when she apparently spotted a Civil Beat reporter in the doorway and decided to take the time to review the forum’s press policy, or no press policy, rather.

In the interest of cultivating an “open” discussion, she said press are banned from events hosted by Women in Renewable Energy. Nothing that’s uttered in The Plaza Club, located atop Pioneer Plaza and boasting mauka to makai views, was to leave the room, she said.

Indeed, The Plaza Club is a private club and Women in Renewable Energy have the right to keep their forums closed to the media. Still, it seems like a peculiar stance to try to muzzle news of what government officials have to say about public policy matters, particularly for a nonprofit that seeks to promote education around clean energy issues.

]]>Caldwell Administration Stresses Fiscal Austerity in 2016https://www.civilbeat.org/2015/03/caldwell-administration-stresses-fiscal-austerity-in-2016/
Tue, 03 Mar 2015 05:00:49 +0000http://www.civilbeat.org/?p=1072928Mayor Kirk Caldwell is emphasizing fiscal austerity in his 2016 fiscal year budget, which includes reductions in capital spending and no new taxes or fees. “The budget is a no frills budget,” said city Managing Director Roy Amemiya, who presented the budget in the mayor’s absence. Caldwell is out of town on a personal trip. The […]

]]>Mayor Kirk Caldwell is emphasizing fiscal austerity in his 2016 fiscal year budget, which includes reductions in capital spending and no new taxes or fees.

“The budget is a no frills budget,” said city Managing Director Roy Amemiya, who presented the budget in the mayor’s absence. Caldwell is out of town on a personal trip.

The $2.3 billion operating budget represents a 6.5 percent, or $139 million, increase in spending from last year. The bulk of that represents increases in non-discretionary costs, debt service and the mayor’s proposal to increase the funding deposited into a fund reserved for emergencies.

Mayor Kirk Caldwell responds to questions during joint a legislative hearing in January.

Cory Lum/Civil Beat

The city’s capital budget has been slashed from $709 million for the 2015 fiscal year to $494 million for the upcoming year in order to reduce debt service payments and prepare for added rail costs.

The city is facing a roughly $1 billion funding shortfall for the rail project. The cost of the project was initially pegged at $5.2 billion, but cost overruns have been mounting. While the the mayor lobbies the Legislature and top state officials to extend a surcharge on the General Excise Tax to fund the project, rail officials are asking the City Council to float $350 million worth of city bonds to help with short-term financing.

“To best position itself for this, the city needs to rein in spending and build prudent levels of reserves in order to demonstrate its ability to underwrite future financing and capital projects, including rail construction,” according to the mayor’s budget summary.

The mayor’s budget proposals mark a reversal from last year, when Caldwell sought to raise taxes on expensive homes owned by non-residents, increase taxes for hotels and resorts, charge residents $10 a month for trash service and raise city revenue by placing advertisements on the sides of buses.

The City Council killed the trash fee and bus ads, while reducing the tax increases. Council Budget Chair Ann Kobayashi criticized the mayor for overburdening cash-strapped residents.

Caldwell also plans to transfer $30 million into the city’s rainy day fund for emergencies such as a hurricane or tsunami.

Spending Plan

Some $142.5 million in spending would go toward federally mandated sewer improvements and $110 million to the mayor’s road repaving project — representing more than half of the city’s capital improvement budget. The mayor has pledged to repave 300 lane miles of substandard roads a year.

The capital budget also includes $13.4 million for park improvements throughout the city, including $920,000 for Maili Beach Park restrooms, $500,000 to fix beach park sewage systems and $700,000 to renovate the restroom at Sandy Beach. Some $1.5 million would go to improving Thomas Square park and $3.2 million for Ala Moana Regional Park.

The administration has also included $20 million in the budget for the purchase of new city buses and Handi-Vans for the disabled. Most of this woul be funded by federal dollars, known as 5307 funds, even though they have been promised to the rail project. Both Caldwell and City Council members have pledged to take the 5307 funds out of the rail budget, but will now have to come up with $210 million in replacement money.

The mayor also hopes to use $18 million to build low-income housing, which would be overseen by his new Office of Strategic Development. He is also seeking $654,000 this upcoming year to support salaries for the office.

Another $5 million has been earmarked in the capital budget to support the development of an integrated bus and rail fare system. The mayor also plans to spend $1.7 million in operating and capital funds to support development plans along the rail line, including projects along the Blaisdell cultural corrider, Kapalama canal and at the Pearlridge bus transfer station.

Addressing the city’s homelessness problem continues to be a priority for the mayor, who has increased the Housing First budget from $3 million last year to $5.5 million this year. The funding aims to support housing and services for more than 200 long-term homeless people, many of whom suffer from mental illness and drug and alcohol abuse.

The mayor has also set aside $4 million in the capital budget to put solar panels at the H-Power facility, which burns the city’s garbage and converts it to electricity.

Managing Debt

The city is facing a $1.7 billion unfunded liability for retiree health benefits. Caldwell is proposing to spend $51.5 million this year to help pay it off, as opposed to the $30.8 million minimum required by state law.

“We feel it is very important to work on this problem and not kick the can down the road,” said Amemiya, who added that it could take decades to resolve the problem.

The city is also facing a sharp increase in debt service in the coming years. For general and highway projects, debt payments are expected to increase from about $160 million in 2015 to over $300 million in 2020.

Debt service is the biggest expense in the 2016 operating budget, comprising nearly 20 percent.

The administration is seeking to end the city’s practice of paying only the interest on bonds for five years, which increases costs in the long run.

The administration is also seeking to transfer $24 million in equipment purchases for such things as fire trucks, street sweepers and police vehicles, from the capital budget to the operating budget — paying for the items in cash as opposed to 25-year bonds.

The proposed budget is sure to change in coming months as it goes to the City Council for approval. Council members are likely to insert their own spending priorities while amending the mayor’s proposals. The council must pass a balanced budget by this summer.